1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a loading apparatus for a cassette containing a record medium and, more particularly, to a tape cassette loading apparatus for a video tape recorder.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A slidable loading mechanism for loading a cassette containing a magnetic tape or a magnetic disk sheet in a video or audio recorder is known. In this mechanism, a cassette compartment is arranged on a slidable chassis, and a record medium is loaded to a predetermined recording/reproducing position upon sliding movement thereof. In a portable recorder, an outer cover of a cassette compartment, i.e., the outer surface of a cassette pocket, is often part of an outer casing of the recorder in order to reduce the size of the recorder.
In the cassette loading apparatus with the above arrangement, the outer cover of the cassette compartment is movable together with the slidable chassis. Therefore, if the outer cover is pressed by, e.g., a hand, unnecessary external force is applied to the slidable mechanism, thus damaging part of the mechanism or degrading positioning precision of a cassette.
Further, a structure with an aperture undesirably formed between the outer cover of the cassette compartment and an outer casing of the recorder upon movement (loading or unloading) of the slidable chassis is to be avoided. This is because the internal mechanism of the recorder is exposed through such an aperture, and this leads to potential problems therewith.
A pop-up type cassette loading mechanism is also conventionally used. In this mechanism, a cassette holder (pocket) can pivot. The cassette holder pops up to expose a cassette insertion opening. After a cassette is inserted therein, the cassette holder is pushed down, thus completing the cassette loading operation.
When the pop-up type cassette loading mechanism shown in FIG. 1 is adopted, a gap as wide as a hand is often formed between a pop-up cassette holder 10 and an outer casing of the recorder. This gap should be made as narrow as possible, but tends to be widened as the recorder becomes compact in size.
When the cassette holder is in the pop-up position shown in FIG. 1, a cassette positioning pin, a guide pin and the like on a cassette loading plane must be completely disengaged from the cassette. Therefore, as the width of the recorder is decreased, a pop-up angle .theta. of the cassette holder increases accordingly. For this reason, a pop-up height H increases upon increase in tan.theta., and a gap E between the cassette holder 10 and the outer casing of the recorder increases. In this case, an unskilled operator may try to insert a cassette 1 through the gap E, and may thus damage the internal mechanism of the recorder.
In a recorder combining a pop-up type cassette holder and a slidable cassette loading mechanism, the gap E is further widened upon backward sliding of the slidable mechanism.